Sliding type of color selector



Aug. 15, 1961 P. s. MoRToN SEEDING TYPE OE COLOR SELECTOR Filed July 29, 1959 INVENTOR.

5 MOETQN PAUL ATTORNE S15 United States Patent 2,995,836 SLIDIN G TYPE OF COLOR SELECTOR Paul S. Morton, 5731 Meadowlark Lane, Portage Township, Kalamazoo County, Mich. Filed July 29, 1959, Ser. No. 830,287 4 Claims. (Cl. 35-28.3)

This invention relates to a color selecting device and it relates particularly to a device for indicating colors which will bear certain preselected relationships to each other in different patterns and groupings as desired.

It has long been common practice in various kinds of painting and decorating establishments to make suggestions to customers with respect to the colors which will look well together. However, insofar as I am aware, where this service has been sufficiently detailed to be of any real value, it has either been carried out solely by the judgment of an experienced person in the establishment or by the use of fairly complex apparatus. Inasmuch as a great many color groupings are selected by amateurs and selected without benefit of experienced counselling, the facilities of such establishments are often not fully utilized. As a result many weird and otherwise undesirable color combinations are sometimes chosen by such amateurs on the basis solely of their own immediate impressions and when applied, for example, to the redecorating of a residential interior, the colors are found, when the job is completed, to be entirely unsatisfactory. Often, even though the establishment selling the paint had nothing at all to do with the choice of colors, nevertheless the unpleasant effect of the bad color choice creates discontent on the part of the customer and much of this reflects at least to some degree on the establishment.

To meet this problem and to improve their services to customers, many establishments selling paint or otherwise serving the interior decoration of residences, and other similar use, have devised a variety of charts for indicating pleasing color combinations but these charts are frequently large and complex and cannot be conveniently taken home by potential customers for use at the time the color choices are actually made. Therefore, their usefulness is severely restricted.

It has therefore long been desired to provide a device which will indicate pleasing color combinations, will do so in groups involving different numbers of colors and yet which can be manufactured suiciently inexpensively that it can be utilized by a paint selling or decorating establishment asa give-away item to potential customers.

The objects of the invention are:

(l) To provide a device for indicating pleasing groups of colors upon selection of a single dominant color by the operator;

(2) To provide a device, as aforesaid, which can be easily operated by persons inexperienced in color selections;

(3) To provide a device, as aforesaid, which can be readily adjusted to indicate different numbers of colors for a single grouping, such as colors in groups ofV two groups of three, groups of four and similar;

(4) To provide a device, as aforesaid, whose operation will be obvious and can accordingly be operated by any' Other objects and purposes of the invention will beV apparet to persons acquainted with devices of this general type upon a reading of the following disclosure and inspecting the accompanying drawings.

n color of the mutual complement.

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In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view, partially broken away, of the device embodying the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken on the line lI-II of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a plan view of the first selector card utilized with said device.

FIGURE 4 is a plan view of the second selector card utilized with said device.

General description In general, the device of the invention consists of a jacket constituting a frame structure and supporting at least one color wheel rotatably therein. A selector card is arranged in front of said color wheel in such a manner that the card can be positioned as desired for eX- posing certain color groupings on said color wheel and said wheel may then be rotated for aligning with the selector card the specific colors desired. Sliding movement of said selector card places different selector openings in front of the color wheel to obtain pairs of complementary colors, double complementary colors, triad harmony colors and other desired groupings.

It is well known that the colors blue, yellow and red are the so-called primary colors and the colors green, orange and purple are the so-called secondary colors. It has been suggested to arrange these colors at equally spaced intervals around a circle, or a so-called color wheel, in the following order; blue, green, yellow, orange, red and purple. Conventionally, the color wheel also has one or more colors `between each of the primary and secondary colors which colors are combinations thereof, such as blue-green yellow-green, etc. Obviously, the color wheel can contain as many colors between the primary and secondary colors as is desired, such as blueblue-green, blue-green and blue-green-green, etc.

It has been found that certain combinations of colors are aesthetically pleasing to at least certain groups of people and, therefore, it is desirable that a color selecting device be capable of providing such pleasing combinations so as to enable a purchaser to select appropriate color or colors for his purposes. The invention provides means indicating such color combinations and these cornbinations, for convenience in the following description,v will be defined now. It will be understood that when referred to hereinafter, the term complementary harmony shall mean colors which are directly opposite from each other on a color wheel, such as green and red, yellow-green and red-purple, etc. 'I'he term split complementary harmony means any color on a color wheel and the two colors to the left and to the right of its true complement, such as blue, yellow-orange and red-orangeV (orange being the true complement of blue). The term double complementary harmony means four colors, namely, colors to the left and to the right of each of two complementary colors, such as blue-green, blue-purple, red-orange and yellow-orange (blue and orange being complementary). The term triad harmony means any three colors which are equally spaced from each other around the color wheel, such as red, -yellow and blue. The term analagous harmony refers to three colors on the color wheel which contain a common primary color, such as green, yellow-green and yellow (yellow bei-ng the common primary color). The term mutual complementary harmony means an analagous harmony plus a color directly across the color wheel from the central Further, the complement to the analagous harmony could be split to provide a split mutual complementary harmony.

Detailed description Referring to the drawings, there is vshown a frame 'mem-A ber 1 consisting of a sheet of reasonably stijf material, such as paperboard or plastic, comprising a central member 2 having a rst folded back portion 3 comprising one side of the frame structure anda second folded back portion 4 comprising Vthe other side of the frame structure. 'I'he tip Sof the sheet of material is preferably folded in and fastened in a convenient -manner to provide a neatly finished edge 6.

A color wheel 7 is then fastened pivotally at 8 to the s econd folded back portion 4 of a frame member 1 and a further color'wheel 9 is similarly pivotally fastened to the rst folded back portion 3 of the frame member 1. Suitable windows 12 and 13 lare provided through the second folded back portion 4 to expose a desired portion of the color wheel 7 therethrough and similar windows, not shown, are provided through the rst folded back portion 3 for'similarly exposing portions of the color Wheel 9. The exposed portions of the color wheel 9 are identical to that ofthe color wheel 7 hence duplicate illustration thereof is unnecesary.

A yfirst color selector 16 is arranged between the color wheel 7 and the second folded back portion 4 in order that the portion of the color wheel actually exposed to view will be determined by the cut out portions of said selector 416. A pin 15 extending through a slot 20 holds the slider in place while permitting sliding movement thereof. Thus, cut outs in varying patterns are provided in said selector 16 so that as said selector is moved longitudinally with respect to the frame 1, different cut out sections as desired will come into registry with the cut out portions 12. and 13 and thereby expose selected portions of the color wheel to view. While the specific cut out zones of the selector 16 may be varied widely, one commercially acceptable form is shown in FIGURE 3. Here, when the numeral l indicated at 17 appears in the window 18, the cut out 21 in the selector 16 becomes aligned with the middle of the upper cut out 12 and a single color on the color wheel 7 may be seen and a particular color determined -by suitable rotation of the color wheel 7. As the card slides sidewise, and the numeral "2 appearing at 19 :becomes aligned with the window 18, then cut outs 23 and 24 become aligned with cut outs 12 and 13 and suitable complementary harmony colors from the color wheel become visible to the user of the device. Similarly, 4as the card is progressively moved leftwardly, the cut outs 28, 29 and 31 permit three colors on the color wheel forming a split complementary harmony to become visible and further leftward movement of the selector 16 permits four colors comprising a double complementary harmony to become visible to the user of the device. At any of the aforesaid settings, the color wheel 7 may be rotated for color selection.

The color selector card 27 has further cut out patterns therein for operation with the colocl wheel 9 for the presentation to the userY of still further color arrangements vand groupings and is here shown as being adapted for showing triad harmony, analagous harmony and mutual complementary harmony when the numerals 5, 6 and 7 are revealed through an opening in portion 3 corresponding to opening 18. It will be apparent that the color wheel A Operation The operation of the device has somewhat been indicated above but it will be further set forth hereinafter to insure a complete understanding of the invention.

If the user of the device wishes to see pairs of Ycomplementary colors, he moves the selector card leftwardly until the numeral 2 appears in the window 18. In this position the windows 23 and-24 become aligned with the windows 12 and 13 and expose complementary colors on the opposite peripheral portions of the color wheel 7. Rotation, then, of the color wheel will expose through the windows 23 and 24 different sets of complementary colors. Assuming now that the user of the device wishes to see a split complementary harmony of colors, he moves of the color wheels 7 or 9 as desired.

- While a particular preferred embodiment of the invention has been disclosed in detail hereinabove, it will be recognized that the invention includes such variations or modifications thereof as lie within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a color selecting device the combination comprising: an elongated envelope; a color wheel within said envelope and pivotally arranged with respect thereto; a pair of spaced sight openings through |a wall of said envelope and aligned with circumferentially spaced portions of said color wheel; an elongated selector card slidably arranged within said envelope and positioned between said color wheel and said sight openings and means supporting said selector card for sliding movement longitudinally within said envelope, said selector card having a plurality of groups of selector openings spaced lengthwise along said card and positionable upon lengthwise adjustment of said card so that one group of selector openings at a time will be in registry with said sight openings andl with said color wheel; whereby lengthwise adjustment of said selector card will position a selected group of selector openings in registry with said sight openings and said color wheel and thereby expose a selected pattern of colors on said color wheel to the view of an observer, the colors being arranged on said color wheel such that placement of one color in alignment with one of said selector openings will expose to the other of said selector openings a color having a. predetermined relationship with said one color andV diiferent colorsrmay be Apanel constituting a first compartment and ya second portion folded back upon itself on the other side of said center panel to constitute `a second compartment, the free edge of said last-named portion being rigidly aixed with respect to said center panel, first and second color wheels each rotatably aixed to respectively opposite sides of said center panel and longitudinally spaced from each other; a rst pair of spaced sight openings through said rst portion and positioned adjacent circumferentially spaced portions of said iirst color wheel and' a second pair of sight openings through said second portionand positioned adjacent circumferentially spaced portions of said second color wheel; and a first selector card extending slidably between said iirst color wheel and said rst portion, said first selector card being provided with a plurality of selector openings therethrough arranged in a plurality of patterns, said patterns being related to colors '(5 on said color wheel such that sliding movement of said selector card will place one of said patterns of openings in alignment With one of the sight openings for rendering circumferentially spaced areas of said color Wheel visible through said sight openings; and a second selector card extending slidably between said second color wheel and said second portion and said second selector card being provided with a plurality of selector openings therethrough arranged in a plurality of patterns, said patterns being related to the colors on said second color Wheel such that sliding movement of said second selector card will place one of said patterns of openings in alignment with said second pair of sight openings for rendering circumferentially spaced `areas of said second color wheel visible through said second pair of sight openings; whereby sliding adjustment of said selector cards will render visible one at a time a multiplicity of groupings appearing on one or the other 'of said color Wheels and rotation of said color Wheels Will bring different colors into alignment with said sight openings.

4. A color selecting device comprising: a frame; a color Wheel rotatably mounted on said rame and having differently colored segments arranged in a circle thereon; said frame including a sheet in front of said color wheel and having two sight openings therethrough of such size that they overlie at least three adjacent differently colored segments of said color Wheel; an elongated selector card and means supporting same on said frame in front of said color wheel for longitudinal sliding movement transverse to the axis lof rotation of said color wheel, said selector card having a plurality of longitudinally spaced groups of selector openings therethrough, the selector openings being of a size not greater than the size of one `of said colored segments of said color Wheel and the selector openings in each group being arranged in a diierent pattern from the other groups, the selector openings being alignable With portions of said sight openings whereby different combinations of said colored segments of said color Wheel may be exposed to view by moving said selector card longitudinally to bring one or another group of said selector openings into alignment with said sight openings.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,351,661 Kaufman Aug. 31, 1920 2,229,025 Keyes Ian. 21, 1941 2,636,286 Bowman Apr. 28, 1953 

